Ration Card in Rajasthan

What is a ration card in Rajasthan and who issues it?

A ration card in Rajasthan is issued by the Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, Government of Rajasthan, headquartered at the Government Secretariat in Jaipur. The department runs the state's public distribution system under the National Food Security Act, 2013 and maintains the ration card database, the fair price shop network and the PoS-based distribution reporting published on food.rajasthan.gov.in.

Rajasthan splits the process into two distinct decisions, and confusing them costs applicants months:

1. Getting the ration card made. This is an e-Mitra transaction. The Food Department's homepage carries a direct link, "नया राशन कार्ड बनवाने के लिए आवेदन करें", which routes to the state single sign-on at sso.rajasthan.gov.in. The form is filled by an e-Mitra kiosk operator under the citizen's SSO login.
2. Getting into the NFSA food security list. This decides whether the family actually draws subsidised wheat. It is filed as a first appeal to the Sub-Divisional Officer or the District Supply Officer on the department's prescribed food security appeal form, and its progress is tracked at rrcc.rajasthan.gov.in, which asks for an existing ration card number.

Both steps hang on the Jan Aadhaar card. The department's circular dated 05 April 2022 directs that all public distribution system benefits be made available through Jan Aadhaar, and the appeal form marks the Jan Aadhaar number as compulsory for the head of household and for every member listed.

Who is eligible for a ration card and NFSA inclusion in Rajasthan?

A family can apply if:

• It is a permanent resident of Rajasthan, of the named village and gram panchayat in rural areas or the named ward and municipality in urban areas.
• It holds a Jan Aadhaar card, and every member has an Aadhaar number.
• No valid ration card is already held by the family anywhere in India.

For inclusion in the food security list, the department has notified an inclusion priority list. The top four priorities in both rural and urban areas are Antyodaya families, BPL families, State BPL families and Annapurna Yojana beneficiaries. Families not covered by those four qualify if they fall in one of the further listed categories, which include:

• beneficiaries of Mukhyamantri Vridhjan Samman Yojana, the Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension, Mukhyamantri Ekal Nari Yojana, the Indira Gandhi National Widow Pension, Mukhyamantri Vishesh Yogyajan Pension and the Indira Gandhi National Disabled Pension;
• Saharia and Kathodi tribal families and legally freed bonded labourers;
• families under Mukhyamantri Nirashrit Punarvas Pariwar Yojana and beneficiaries of the Mukhyamantri Jeevan Raksha Kosh;
• single women, inmates of all government hostels, construction workers registered with the labour department, and registered orphanages, old-age homes and leprosy homes;
• rag pickers, street vendors, cycle-rickshaw pullers, porters, non-government sanitation workers and urban domestic working women in urban areas;
• landless agricultural labourers, marginal farmers and small farmers in rural areas, and families that completed 100 days of MGNREGA work in any year from 2009-10;
• nomadic and semi-nomadic communities such as Vanbagariya, Gadiya Lohar and shepherds, and traditional forest-dwelling families holding forest rights documents;
• persons affected by leprosy, AIDS or silicosis, persons with multiple disability or intellectual disability across 21 categories, transgender persons, childless elderly couples, elderly couples whose only children are disabled, Palanhar Yojana beneficiary children, victims under the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, 1989 as amended in 2015, and women victims under the Rajasthan Prevention of Witch-Hunting Act, 2015;
• surveyed families living in kachhi basti and Uttarakhand disaster affected families.

Who cannot be included, the seven exclusions. The department's notification dated 27 September 2018 lists exclusion grounds that apply uniformly to every inclusion category. A family is not eligible if:

1. any one member is an income tax payer;
2. any one member is a regular employee or officer of a government, semi-government or autonomous institution, or draws a pension of more than Rs 1 lakh a year;
3. any one member owns a four-wheeler, excluding a tractor and one commercial vehicle used to earn a livelihood;
4. the total agricultural land owned by all members exceeds the limit fixed for a small farmer;
5. the total income of all members exceeds Rs 1 lakh a year;
6. in rural areas, the family owns a pucca house of more than 2,000 square feet built for its own residence;
7. in urban areas, the family owns pucca residential or commercial premises of more than 1,000 square feet in a Nagar Nigam or Nagar Parishad area, or more than 1,500 square feet in a Nagar Palika area: kachhi basti excluded.

What documents are required in Rajasthan?

The form is explicit about the consequence of a false declaration: if the family is later found on inquiry to fall within an exclusion category, legal action may be taken against it.

How to apply for a ration card in Rajasthan

1. Get a Jan Aadhaar card first if the family does not already have one. Without it neither the e-Mitra ration card form nor the NFSA appeal can be completed.
2. Log in at sso.rajasthan.gov.in, registering with the Jan Aadhaar or Aadhaar number if you do not already have an SSO ID.
3. Open Citizen Apps (G2C), then e-Mitra, then Services, Avail Services, Utility, and search for the ration card new-application form-filling service.
4. Fill the family details exactly as they appear in Jan Aadhaar, head of household, each member's name, parents' names, relationship, gender, date of birth, Jan Aadhaar number and Aadhaar number.
5. Pay the e-Mitra kiosk its notified service charge and collect the printed receipt with the transaction number.
6. Track the application through the Food Department's "Ration Card Application Status" link, and download the issued card from rrcc.rajasthan.gov.in.

How to apply for inclusion in the food security (NFSA) list

1. Download the food security appeal form from food.rajasthan.gov.in under "खाद्य सुरक्षा योजना / राशन कार्ड-आवेदन फॉर्म". There are two annexures; one for urban areas and one for rural areas, and you must use the right one.
2. Fill the family table, entering the Jan Aadhaar and Aadhaar numbers for every member, which the form marks as compulsory.
3. Tick the inclusion priority category you claim and attach the documentary evidence for it. The form warns that an appeal unsupported by documentary evidence is liable to be cancelled, but also promises up to 15 additional days to file missing documents rather than rejecting the appeal outright.
4. Sign the self-declaration that the family falls in none of the seven exclusion categories of the 27 September 2018 notification.
5. Submit the appeal to the Sub-Divisional Officer or the District Supply Officer of your sub-division.
6. Track the outcome at rrcc.rajasthan.gov.in on the "NFSA Appeal Status" page by entering the ration card number, and use "Apply NFSA Appeal" and the GIVE-UP pages on the same portal for related actions.

What does it cost in Rajasthan?

The Food Department does not publish a government fee for issuing a ration card or for deciding a food security appeal. The appeal form is a free download from food.rajasthan.gov.in and the SDO or DSO does not charge to receive it. What you do pay is the e-Mitra kiosk's notified service charge for filling and submitting the online form. Ask the kiosk operator to show the notified rate board and to give you a printed receipt with the transaction number. Any amount beyond that notified charge, and in particular any payment demanded to "get your name into the food security list", is unauthorised. Inclusion is decided against the published priority and exclusion criteria, and no agent can move a family up that list.

How do I check status and download the card?

• rrcc.rajasthan.gov.in — "NFSA Appeal Status" for the food security decision, and "Download Ration Card / Surrender Certificate" for the card itself. Both pages ask for the ration card number.
• food.rajasthan.gov.in; "Ration Card Application Status", district-wise ration card details, and PoS-wise distribution reports.
• e-Mitra receipt; keep the transaction number, it is what the kiosk uses to re-open a pending case.

Common reasons a Rajasthan application fails

• No Jan Aadhaar card, or a mismatch between Jan Aadhaar and Aadhaar names.
• A member already listed on another ration card, in Rajasthan or elsewhere.
• No documentary evidence for the inclusion category claimed, curable within the 15 extra days the form allows.
• The family falls in an exclusion category, most often a regular government employee, a four-wheeler, or a house above the square-footage limit for the local body type.
• Wrong annexure used. The urban form filed for a rural family or the reverse, which produces different inclusion lists and different house-size limits.
• Income above Rs 1 lakh a year across all members.

Where to complain in Rajasthan

• Sub-Divisional Officer or District Supply Officer of your sub-division, who decides the food security appeal.
• District Collector (Rasad). The department publishes a district collector (supply) contact list, an RSFCSC contact list, an FPS contact list and an LPG agency contact list at food.rajasthan.gov.in.
• Rajasthan State Food Commission, linked from the department's site, for NFSA grievances not resolved at district level.
• Food Department, Jaipur to 0141-2227352 during working hours, or secy-food-rj@nic.in.
• 14445, the One Nation One Ration Card toll-free line, for portability and distribution problems.

Rajasthan has also constituted four-tier vigilance committees to enforce transparency and accountability in the targeted PDS under NFSA, and publishes the constitution orders and block-wise and district-wise social audit rules on the department site, a route worth using when a fair price shop, rather than the card itself, is the problem.